Ulaanbaatar BRT plans and designs taking shape

Peace Avenue now the Phase 1 BRT focus

With Asian Development Bank loan funding and guidance, the Ulaanbaatar BRT project is taking shape, with Far East Mobility's planning and design focus now on Peace Avenue.

Far East Mobility's preliminary design and planning work for the Ulaanbaatar BRT was presented and well-received at a major seminar at the Shangri La Hotel in central Ulaanbaatar on 1-2 November. The seminar was the first time that this planning and design work on the Ulaanbaatar BRT in 2016 had been presented to the city government and other stakeholders. In addition to presenting international best practices and lessons learned and explaining the project rationale and recommended corridor selection and preliminary design of stations and operation, Far East Mobility's Karl Fjellstrom showed renderings and provided input on areas such as station area developoment, institutional arrangements, architecture and next steps in BRT implementation.

Ulaanbaatar's average bus speeds are less than 10km throughout the central area from 8AM to 8PM, according to data from December 2015 and February 2016. Bus passenger demand is high and physical conditions are well-suited to high capacity BRT implementation. The corridor comparison analysis revealed that Peace Avenue & Namyan Ju Road are the clear phase 1 priority BRT corridor. The 3/4 khoroolol / Ikh Toiruu / southwest connection (to the 120 area) corridor is the clear phase 2 BRT preference. The Doloon Buudal and Airport Road corridors are the proposed 3rd phase BRT corridors. All 45km and 60 BRT stations could be implemented in the next five years as part of the ADB project, with the city targetting the first two corridors to be operational by 2020. The project has the potential to dramatically transform the city and meet Ulaanbaatar's mass transit needs for at least the rest of the century. In the first phase implementation alone (along Peace Avenue and Namyan Ju) Far East Mobility estimates that more than 40% of all bus boardings in the city will take place within 400m of a phase 1 BRT route.

The ADB technical assistance seminar was attended by the Mayor and other senior officials of Ulaanbaatar.